My husband and I watch a horror movie every night of October..."scary movie month"...a thing we copied from my sister-in-law. This was our selection last night, and it made me absolutely sick to my stomach. Instead of putting effort into developing the characters and providing some connection through which the viewer can empathize at least a little with the family of "mutants", a back-pocket cop-out like rape is used. For all the boundaries most horror movies push, most rape survivors don't expect to suddenly be plunged into the horror of our very worst life moment during a flick. I get weary of the use of rape as a cinematic tool to spice up or fill in where writers can't or won't make the effort to do something better, more complex, or that apparently requires more work, and this time...an underage girl....it was absolutely reprehensible. And no, I'm not a "snowflake" and don't walk around being "triggered" by anything and everything in life, but judging from the other reviews here, not many people were appreciative of this scene either. Ruined what could have been a good horror film.

I can just far out say that this was 100% better than 1977. The 1977 version was so cheesy. I know it's one of Craven's first movies,but I think we can agree that his best films are Nightmare on elm street and Scream. 2006 version offers more action,more emotion,better blood effects,and action packed fighting. While 1977 only show only little of it. Personally I thought 1977 looked like a bunch of cave men more than mutants. The 2006 version had better unexpected scares and mysteries to why it is the family was stuck in the dessert. While 1977 actually just gives the whole movie away by showing the trailer. I don't know why,but it's just my opinion that the 2006 version showed more empathy in horror. Like 1977 just tells the story about these people around the beginning of the movie,while,of course,2006 gets to the story last before the action fighting begins. Just to get to the point,and I have already said this before,but 2006 was just better.

Director Alexandra Aja had a lot riding on his own Hills Have Eyes film and he certainly did not ruin his rep by remaking this film. In the grand scheme of the horror genre, Aja's Hills Have Eyes is one of the best remakes out there. It was true to the original with a very similar plot but it added some different twist and cool scenes along the way. The town scene, which is a unique idea to the nuclear subplot, is very gory and tense. One negative thing compared to the original is how deformed the mutants are. The mutants are too unrealistic looking, with no distinguishable features, the original gave a way better image. Also, the last five seconds is a big let-down, it's low class sometimes how horror movies try to make it interesting and set itself up for a sequel. Still, the 2006 modern version of The Hills Have Eyes is a big hit and one of the better horror films of that decade.

I've never really been a fan of remakes but I'm pleased to say that this new version of the '70s horror classic is well worth a watch. French director Alexandre Aja (who cut his teeth on the grisly SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE) revels in the bloodshed and pain in this action-packed thriller which is essentially a film of two halves. The first half is slow paced and takes time out to introduce the central characters of the storyline. Camera-work is strong and stylish throughout and great use is made of the eerily desolate desert scenery. Because there's so much going on in the movie, there isn't really a great deal of characterisation; instead the characters of the protagonists are revealed through their actions or in-actions. The film has a 'survival of the fittest' policy whereby the strongest characters find their inner strength while the weaker ones fall by the wayside. Of course there are a couple of exceptions to the rule.The second half of the film begins with a nasty interlude in which mutants invade a caravan, rape a young blonde teenager, suckle a mother and threaten a baby with a gun. This is pretty depraved stuff and not for the squeamish. Afterwards, the last forty minutes of the movie show the human characters fighting back as best they can, and I'm pleased to say this part of the film really hits the mark, as well as in a similar film like HOSTEL. Aaron Stanford, a geeky 20-something, emerges as the film's true hero and the scenes in which he battles the mutants using a combination of luck and skill are tremendously fun. Aja piles on the bloodshed at every stage, with bloody shotgun blasts, axes tearing through flesh, impalings, and all manner of nastiness. The opening shot of a scientist thrown through the air at the end of an axe is a good forerunner to this latter carnage.Special effects in the film are excellent – but then they're by the typically excellent Greg Nicotero, so you'd expect them to be. The mutants are suitably weird looking, although they're nothing we haven't seen before (especially if you're familiar with other horror flicks like WRONG TURN). Robert Joy stands out as the chief mutant, a real psycho of a guy; a natural progression from his deformed character in LAND OF THE DEAD. The other supporting characters are good at being terrified, and I especially liked the sub-plot involving Ted Levine's character, a big tough guy who has the most awful fate imaginable. All in all THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake is entertaining stuff, not really disturbing or as scary as I had heard but instead standing as a great example of the 'survival horror' genre.